


All's Fair in Love and Thumb Wars

by AnxietyAvocado



Category: Fruits Basket, Fruits Basket (Anime 2019), Fruits Basket - Takaya Natsuki (Manga)
Genre: Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Gen, Silly, is this crack? it feels like it is
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:28:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24507688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnxietyAvocado/pseuds/AnxietyAvocado
Summary: To be fair... Akito said Kyo had to beat Yuki. The 'how' wasn't specified.Or, all the ridiculous ways that Kyo has tried to beat Yuki in a competition of some sort.
Relationships: Sohma Kyou & Sohma Yuki
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	All's Fair in Love and Thumb Wars

The great thing about rules are that there are loopholes. And those are meant to be exploited.

At first, Kyo tried all of the things he thought he could beat Yuki in. He fought him. He raced him. He tried to get better test scores. That _damn, stubborn, filthy, squeaky_ rat managed to beat him every single time. Every time! It was infuriating. For months, and then years, he kept running his head into the same proverbial wall and literal fist without any real progress and by the time that they were ready to leave for the beach, Kyo was ready to start trying unconventional methods. 

That was how he arrived at the idea of a thumb war. 

He waited until a night where Tohru was at work and Shigure was visiting Hatori to suggest it. If she was there, he knew that she would just fret and worry and generally be ~~adorably~~ distracting, and if Shigure was around he would just make what he thought was witty commentary that would only make Kyo angry. If he had any chance of winning, he needed to keep his head clear and keep distractions to a minimum. 

Yuki was another problem, especially when he flat out said, "This is the stupidest idea I've ever heard and I won't even dignify it with a response."

"You just did though," Kyo ground out. 

That point seemed to be unwelcome, judging by the way that Yuki was glaring at him, but the rat hadn't shot him down. Not exactly. 

That was how, two hours later, they were shouting at each other over the small table that was crammed into the corner of the kitchen, each one insisting that the other was cheating. Yuki stood there looking so goddamn composed that it only made Kyo more irritable, yelling over him to say that if Kyo wasn't so desperate then maybe he would be able to win in a fair fight! He didn't even seem ruffled that Kyo was practically vibrating out of his skin in anger, hands pulling at his hair from the roots, shouting back that if Yuki could just stop being so fucking _sneaky_ and rat-like then maybe he could consider it a fair fight!

"So then how the hell do you think you're actually going to beat me?" Yuki snarked, arms crossed as he rolled his eyes at the other boy. 

Kyo hated that he didn't have a direct answer. With a growl of frustration he muttered, "If I knew that don't you think I would have done that by now? It's too damn easy for us to try and cheat with something like this."

Looking around, they were both at a loss of what to do to try and ensure it was a fair fight. It wasn't like they could just tie each other down... 

But they could _tape_ each other down. 

Bolting across the room, Kyo pulled open the drawer and held up a roll of duct tape. This! This right here was the answer! This was how they were going to make sure it was a fair fight and he could beat the stupid rat once and for all!

Yuki snorted. "Are you going to try and tie me up and beat me while I can't defend myself? Or is this some kind of kinky thing that you picked up from one of Shigure's books?"

He almost dropped the roll of tape in shock. "Don't insult me like that - you actually think anyone who knows Shigure would willingly read one of his books? Maybe Ayame, but I think that says more about you than Shigure since you're actually related to that asshole."

If there was a way to really get under Yuki's skin, mentioning Ayame was usually it. Kyo knew that mentioning the fact that they were related was enough to short-circuit the sensible corner of Yuki's mind and get him to agree to whatever Kyo was trying to get him to do at the time. 

With a sigh, Yuki pinched the bridge of his nose and looked like he was fighting to roll his eyes. "And what do you think you're going to be doing with that roll of tape, you dumb cat?"

Kyo smiled, aware that he had won the battle but not the war - yet, at least. 

"Easy, we tape our hands together so we can't pull or pull away, and then we tape our connected arms to the table so we can't lift up or pull down. Then we can really have a fair thumb war, I'll beat you, and then I'll be recognized as part of the family. Is that fair enough for you?"

The only answer Kyo got was Yuki taking the tape roll from his hands as he took a seat and pulled a length of tape off of it, ripping it with his teeth. 

Sitting down across from him, Kyo curled his hand around Yuki's, their fingers making a spiral in the middle of their combined fist. Because Yuki held the length of tape in his free hand, Kyo pressed one end of it to the side of his hand while Yuki started wrapping the tape. 

"Not so tight!"

"Stupid cat, do you want this to work or not?"

Kyo's grumbled response was lost in the loud ripping sound that came with more tape being pulled off the roll. Layer after layer of tape covered their intertwined hands, and then their forearms as they taped each other to the table. It wasn't until they were completely taped down that Kyo realized he was wearing a short-sleeve shirt. Oh _shit_ that tape was going to hurt when it was pulled off his arm... If this whole thing hadn't been his idea, he would have sworn that Yuki had planned to still be wearing his school uniform with it's long sleeved jacket this late in the day. Master would call this shortsightedness a problem, his own anger and desperation getting in the way of his goals, and just another sign that Kyo still had a long way to go with his training. Of course Master was right, but Kyo just hoped that the man would never hear about this because he knew that he would get plenty of extra _training_ to make sure that he learned his lesson. 

"Well, are you ready?" Yuki asked, sounding bored. Bored! Kyo couldn't believe that the asshole could be _bored_ in the middle of all of this. Seriously?

With a roll of his shoulders (at least as much as he could manage with one arm attached to a table) Kyo nodded. "Let's do this, rat boy."

Both boys flexed their thumbs, digits pulling back and out of the way as they prepared to begin their fight. 

"One, two, three, four, I declare a thumb war. Five, six, seven, eight, try to keep your thumb straight. And... GO!"

It was a bitter fight, both boys straining to get the upper hand on the other. Thumbs dodged and weaved and neither was able to get a clear advantage on the other. There were close calls on both sides, where before the victor could successfully count to five, one would slip away just out of reach and dive in for another attempt at victory. This dance of digits went on for ages, both boys forgetting dinner and completely ignoring the opening and subsequent closing of the door when Shigure came home. They also didn't hear him come into the kitchen and walk right past them, so absorbed in their fight and trading insults over the other's skill or lack thereof. Still, they had no idea that he was even home when he walked past them again with leftovers from the refrigerator and went to his office, and they also missed his excuses about needing to stay up and work on his manuscript. 

"Why... can't... you... just... give UP!" Kyo shouted in frustration. No matter how many times he was close to beating Yuki it never worked. Nothing he tried worked! There was no feat of strength here, just strategy (if you could call it that) and determination. He was determined, so so determined. Kyo wanted his freedom, he wanted to keep his life the way it was or maybe even better if he could manage it one day. Yuki already had everything, goddamnit, what was he even fighting for? Spite? The ability to say that he beat Kyo yet a-fucking-again, no matter how many times he had been beaten before?

Yuki seemed just as frustrated by the lack of a clear winner. "This just proves you can never beat me!" he insisted. "If you can't win a stupid thumb war, what makes you think you'll ever amount to anything?"

Kyo and Yuki exhausted themselves trying to win, each of them pushing to the brink of exhaustion. Soon, they were nodding off on the table, their arms still taped to the surface. Neither one of them had the energy, even in the arm that wasn't taped down, to try and peel off the adhesive strips so they could go to their respective rooms and collapse onto their bed rolls for the night. Laying face down on the table, arms still attached and starting to tingle with the pins and needles that meant the limb was falling asleep, 

"'m pretty sure I won," Kyo mumbled into the wood grain. 

The answering snort was deadened by the fact that half of Yuki's nose was smooshed against the surface. "Yeah right. You'll never beat me."

They sat like that, arms tingling painfully and hands becoming grossly sweaty, nodding off into light sleep by the time Tohru came home. Neither one of them felt like explaining what they had been doing while she peeled the tape off of their arms, apologizing profusely for all the hairs that ended up being pulled from Kyo's arm. 

By the time they went to bed, they both insisted they had won. Tohru insisted on hiding the duct tape from now on. Shigure insisted that he had missed the entire thing. No one was entirely sure who was lying and who was telling the truth. 

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly this is ridiculous. I should stop letting myself write the first ridiculous thing that I wake up with. 
> 
> Anyway, tumblr is @tohrushat if you wanna yell at me about this.


End file.
